Those prayers of Crimson Tide fans were answered Sunday morning as Alabama was awarded the fourth and final slot in the college football playoffs. Coach Nick Saban’s squad will face CFP No. 1-ranked Clemson in a national semifinal at 7:45 p.m. CST on New Year’s Day in the Allstate Sugar Bowl at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.

“Dabo (Swinney) has done a fantastic job with that program,” Saban said of the Clemson coach. “They’ve been consistently successful and this will be the third year we’ve played them in the playoff. I know our guys will be ready to play and will have a tremendous amount of respect for Clemson. We’ll have to play our best game of the year to have a chance to be successful against them.”

The No. 2 Oklahoma Sooners and No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs will play in the other semifinal game at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, at 4 p.m. in the Rose Bowl. Georgia punched its ticket into the playoffs by beating Auburn 28-7 in a rematch of the Tigers’ 40-17 victory three weeks prior. The national championship game is at 7 p.m. on Jan. 8 in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Alabama Athletic Communications reported Sunday that Tide Pride members have until 5 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 4, to submit requests for playoff semifinal and championship game tickets. Each participating school will receive 13,000 tickets for the semifinal and 20,000 tickets to the championship. Other than the tickets allotted to the schools, the game is sold out.

All requests made by University of Alabama constituency groups (Tide Pride, lettermen and faculty/staff) will be evaluated for all games following the request deadline. For the Allstate Sugar Bowl, all confirmed ticket requests will be shipped to customers via UPS, with a planned shipment date of Friday, Dec. 15. For the championship game in Atlanta, all confirmed requests are planned to be sent via mobile ticket (email and Ticketmaster app download) delivery with a planned send date of Thursday, Jan. 4.

The ability to request tickets does not guarantee tickets. If demand is greater than the allotment of tickets received, refunds will be given based on Tide Totals priority points. Lettermen should note that, if requests received exceed the lettermen allotment, requests will be filled based on last year lettered. UA faculty/staff should note that, if requests received exceed the faculty/staff allotment, requests will be filled based on years of service.

“We’re extremely pleased for our team, our players, our coaches and all the people who work hard here for us,” Saban said. “I’d like to congratulate the other teams that will have the opportunity to participate in the playoff as well as the teams who were considered and had potential to be selected. We are really pleased and happy to be a part of the college football playoff again this year.”

Since its inception in 2014, Alabama is the only team to appear in all four playoffs, and has appeared in the top five of every poll put out by the selection committee over the past four seasons.

The Crimson Tide and Clemson will meet for the 18th time in the history of the series that dates back to 1900. Alabama owns the series advantage, 13-4.

The two most recent matchups came in the 2016 and 2017 national championship games. Alabama rallied to defeat the No. 1 Tigers, 45-40, to capture the Tide’s 16th national championship in the 2016 game in Glendale, Arizona. The Tigers returned the favor with a come-from-behind 35-31 win in the 2017 championship in Tampa, Florida.

No. 7 Auburn faces American Athletic Conference Champion and CFP No. 12 Central Florida in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl’s 50th anniversary game. That contest is set for the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta and will be nationally televised by ESPN at 11:30 a.m.

UCF is making its first trip to the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, while Auburn will make its sixth appearance. Auburn has a 4-1 record in the game, with its most recent appearance resulting in a 43-24 victory over Virginia in 2011.

“We couldn’t have asked for a better matchup to celebrate our 50th anniversary,” said Gary Stokan, Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl CEO and president. “To have college football’s only undefeated team square off against the first-ever team to defeat two College Football Playoff No. 1-ranked teams in a season makes for an extremely compelling game.”

Auburn’s Gus Malzahn will coach in the bowl game with a new contract. He has agreed to a seven-year deal to remain at the school after a strong late-season rebound, The Associated Press reported on Sunday.

Complete financial details were not immediately available but the AP reported Malzahn will make more than $7 million in the final year of the contract. Other Southeastern Conference teams headed to bowl games are:

UAB got a jump on Selection Sunday. The Blazers released their postseason plans last week, announcing that they’ll play Ohio in the Bahamas Bowl at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 22 on ESPN.

In other state-connected bowls:

R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl: Troy is the other state team that is going bowling. The Trojans, champions of the Sun Belt Conference, accepted a bid to play at noon on Saturday, Dec. 16, in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.

“The New Orleans Bowl is a great destination for our fans and players to celebrate an outstanding season,” said Troy coach Neal Brown. “This is a bowl game that our fans have circled every year and we’re looking forward to seeing a strong Trojan presence in New Orleans.”

The opponent will be a familiar one for the Trojans as they will square off against former Sun Belt rival North Texas. The schools have met 10 previous times, with Troy holding an 8-2 advantage in the series. This will be Troy’s fourth trip to the New Orleans Bowl and the Trojans are 2-1 all-time in the game.

The Trojans become just the third team in Sun Belt Conference history to win at least 10 games in consecutive seasons, and Troy is one of just 14 teams nationally to have at least 20 combined wins over the past two seasons.

Birmingham Bowl: The University of South Florida (9-2) of the American Athletic Conference will face Texas Tech (6-6) of the Big 12. This will be the first meeting between the schools.

The 2017 Birmingham Bowl will be played Saturday, Dec. 23, at 11 a.m. at historic Legion Field. The game will air on ESPN.

“We are pleased to have USF return for their third Birmingham Bowl appearance and we welcome Texas Tech for their first appearance in the Birmingham Bowl,” said Mark Meadows, executive director of the Birmingham Bowl. “We look forward to a great matchup and an exciting game for our great city.”

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